Sue Kim on Directing Lisa: Freedom, Tequila and No YG Say

Director Sue Kim says she had "complete and total freedom" making "Always Lalisa," the fly-on-the-wall documentary that follows Blackpink's Lisa through her first solo year — but YG, the label behind Blackpink, refused to license any of her earlier trainee footage or Blackpink music for the film. "Always Lalisa" reaches theaters on Oct. 12.

The documentary, produced with Sony Music Vision, covers a pivotal year: Lisa formed her own management company, dropped her first solo album "Alter Ego," sang a Bond theme at the Oscars, made her acting debut in "The White Lotus" and played Coachella. It also captures the Thai superstar, now 28, adjusting to life without label restrictions — no rules against drinking, dating, driving or seeing friends, and no tracking of her movements.

What does the film reveal about Lisa's life under YG?

Early in the film, Lisa lists what YG prohibited: drinking, dating, getting a driver's license, going out with friends — with her every movement tracked. Kim told Variety the film then quietly shows Lisa doing all those forbidden things throughout the documentary. There are, Kim confirmed, a lot of tequila shots.

"At first I was a little scared because I didn't know how to start," Lisa told Variety. "Nobody was telling me what to do and I'm the one who has to choose the road to go down next. At first, it was like, 'What should I do? What should I do?!' I tried it step by step and little by little, gained a lot of confidence and learned so much on my own."

How much say did YG have?

"We did not work with YG at all on this film," Kim said. Her creative partners at Sony Music Vision, who own the project, granted her full independence. "The reason why we were able to be so honest and so intimate and vulnerable with Lisa in this film is because it was her year away from K-pop, so those rules that she had to abide by didn't apply this year."

The one point of contact: an unsuccessful attempt to license Blackpink songs and trainee footage. "We tried very, very hard to license some of Lisa's earlier trainee footage or Blackpink music videos or songs, and we were unfortunately not allowed to," Kim said. "That was the extent of our interactions with YG."

Why is Lisa so guarded on camera at first?

Kim, who also directed the Apple TV series "K-Pop Idols" and is developing a documentary on Olympian Chloe Kim, built trust through time rather than pitching. "I'm not someone that tries to win someone over in a dinner meeting," she said. "I feel consistency and honesty is the best approach." Lisa never gave her creative direction; the two developed a friendship naturally.

The film tracks a "delayed coming-of-age," Kim said. In the studio, Lisa initially avoided eye contact with her producers and did not know whether she could speak to them directly. "To be given this new freedom is sort of like a young colt getting their first steps and realizing, 'I can run?'" Kim said.

Why doesn't rumored boyfriend Frédéric Arnault appear?

"We were with her a lot of the time and I never saw any boyfriends," Kim said of the billionaire scion heavily rumored to be dating Lisa during filming. "I think she's smart enough to conduct that outside of our filming." The film shows why Lisa hides relationships — she receives an incredible amount of hate — and Kim said the documentary, which also addresses the leaked YG training videos and threats against Lisa's life, is ultimately "a film about personal growth."